Anthony Blue has turned his life around with the help of the Helping Up Mission.

Anthony Blue is training for his first half-marathon on the streets he used to call home.

"I played all kinds of sports, but I never thought that running would make a person feel so good," he said.

Blue is a member of the Helping Up Mission, and he's one of 100 members running in this year's Baltimore Running Festival for Team H.U.M. They are survivors like Blue, who, up until two and a half years ago, led a life of using and selling drugs.

"I started off smoking marijuana at 16," Blue told 11 News reporter Jennifer Franciotti. "At about the age of 23, I was sniffing heroin."

Blue said that landed him in and out of jail and eventually onto the streets.

"Seven years on the street. I was homeless and refusing to go home," Blue said.

But through the Helping Up Mission's recovery program, Blue is now drug-free and has a full-time job working nights cleaning floors at the University of Maryland. He said his addiction is now exercise and that running with the local Back On My Feet program has been motivational.

"I come out, and everybody's all cheerful early in the morning -- 4:30 a.m. -- all smiling and ready to run, so that inspires me to get up and do what I'm able to do with them," he said.

"To see someone who's come through the program, started running, has graduated and has moved on, he's working. Good things happen, and he's a very good role model for everyone," said Team H.U.M. captain Barry Burnette.

"It's a more personal sport than anything. You get out, you run, and you don't know if you can make the next step or two," Blue said.

Last year, Blue ran the 5K in the Baltimore Running Festival. He said 13 miles will be a challenge, but he knows a little something about that.

"My challenges have changed. I would prefer to be out working every day and doing the things I need to do to make me a better person," Blue said.

Team H.U.M. was created by members of that national nonprofit organization Back On My Feet, which is dedicated to creating independence and self-sufficiency with the homeless and other underserved populations.

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